Laulima (Sakai) – First Impressions

I can see why Sheldon Tawata has been raving about Laulima, Kapi`olani Community College’s version of the open source Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment for Education. (Obviously, a mouthful. “Sakai CMS” or just “Sakai” is probably the way to go.) It’s intuitively designed – simple, clear, and logical; and it seems to have been built with the classroom instructor in mind. Literally anyone, with little or no training or technical background, can set up a course and get it off the ground. It’s that simple. Yet, it’s also designed to grow with the user. Thus, whatever your level — beginner, intermediate, or advanced – you can jump right in and begin developing.

I began using Laulima to set up my second session summer classes yesterday (June 30) so I’ll cover the basics only in this article.

Once you’re in your class workspace, you’ll notice two main panels and a thin navigational sidebar on the left. One way to approach this main page is to think of it as a blog page. The right panel (announcements) is a cumulative list of posts. The left panel is a static page for course info. If I could have it my way, I’d omit the thin, static navigational sidebar altogether and replace it with a live sidebar. I’d then pour the navigational items into the new sidebar. I‘d also eliminate the left panel and move the course info feature into the new sidebar – or, alternately, into a tabbed “about” page. This would free up valuable development territory in the main part of the page and add a useful customizable sidebar. This would leave the announcements with a lot more room to stretch out – space that could be used for more dramatic multimedia, graphics, etc.

As is, however, the left panel does have some uses. It can be used to house a webpage, but the width is so narrow that you’d end up constantly using the scroll bar to move from side to side. You could design a very narrow webpage that would fit in this space, but that’d take time and know-how. To get some dynamic use out of that space, I simply created a blog with a very narrow format that more or less fits in the space when you stretch the page out on a widescreen LCD. When I’m logged in to the blog as administrator, I’m able to edit the contents right there in the Laulima panel. Still, I can’t help but think that the left panel is misplaced as far as function and functionality goes. A single, wider announcements panel would, IMHO, be a lot more useful. Then again, the designers might have had a reason for this set up that I haven’t discovered yet.

Laulima is powerful! You can quickly and easily upload photos and files into online Laulima folders, and you can just as quickly and easily access those folders and files to insert them directly or as links into your posts. You can link to or display webpages and blogs from outside the system. For example, my course blogs are in WordPress, and they work without a hiccup as links and direct live displays within Laulima. Editing is a snap, too, intuitive, efficient, logical.

Perhaps the most valuable feature in Laulima is the discussion forums! The ability to futz with the categories and the forums gives you all the flexibility you’ll ever need to create and organize your own discussion universe. If you can think of a customization, Laulima provides a way. You can stay with the default categories or build your own. The same with the forums. And you can edit and rearrange the parts to your heart’s content. As a writing instructor, discussion forums are at the center of my online classes so the ability to tweak them in an almost infinite number of ways is critical.

Right now, I have the discussion section set up in two categories, “General Forums” and “Forums with Deadlines.” The former’s for ongoing discussions on topics that are relevant throughout the semester. The latter, for discussions with specific start-end dates, useful for sequential, linear class learning activities. I’m not sure if I’ll stay with this, but if I change my mind, it’s a snap to make changes, additions, etc.

BTW, one feature that I really like in the forums design menu is the ability to click “up” or “down” to change the order of forums. (A sweet departure from WebCT.)

Closing Thoughts

I wish there was a way to make the narrow navigational sidebar on the left disappear and reappear with a single click. This would free up more space for the main panels.

Not a big deal, but there’s a quirk in the “options” feature for the worksite info and recent announcements panels. When you click on “options” to add to or edit a panel, linking back to the workspace homepage could be a problem.  If you make changes, clicking on “update options” takes you back to the homepage. But if you don’t make any changes and just want to return, you have to click on “cancel.” I learned this the hard way. I automatically clicked on the left “back” arrow at the top of the browser and ended up at the Laulima greetings page. When I clicked on the class to return to the workspace homepage, I ended up back at the options editing page, where I had started. The “home” link in the sidebar is inactive when you’re in the options mode so this logical step is out.  This is when I decided to try “cancel,” which took me home.

A simple solution would be to activate the “home” link in the sidebar when in the panel options mode, or to make sure that the “back” arrow actually points to the workspace homepage.

Another quirk — a cool feature in options for the left panel is the ability to change the header. But, oddly, this same ability is missing from the right panel.  I wanted to switch “Recent Announcements” to simply “Announcements,” but couldn’t.

Like Sheldon, I love what I’ve seen of Laulima and look forward to playing with it. The UH Laulima development staff has done an amazing job in a very short period of time, and they’ve done it right by keeping the instructor-as-developer in mind.

Great job, guys.